Composite materials are becoming increasingly popular in applications where high strength, low weight materials are required. By way of example, composites have found wide acceptance in the aerospace industry for airplane propeller and helicopter rotor blades as well as structural components of airframes. Composites are also employed as the primary structural material in the blades of modern, large wind turbines.
Generally, composite components are manufactured by laying up multiple sheets of the composite material in a laminar arrangement, the lay-up then being cured or hardened. As those skilled in the art will appreciate, subsequent to curing, drilling and/or reaming of holes in the material as well as other machining of the material may be required. Such machining operations are often costly and time consuming due to rapid tool wear. While in the machining of metals, tool wear is minimized by the utilization of cutting fluids such as any of various known cutting oils, such fluids can attack the composite laminate thereby adversely affecting the structural integrity of the composite article and are therefore generally unsuitable for use in the machining of composites.